Students_Perception_of_Gamification_to_P
Students_Perception_of_Gamification_to_P
http://e-journal.president.ac.id/presunivojs/index.php/LARSO
Gilang A. Pratama1
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education1
Ibn Khaldun University Bogor
[email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The development of technology brings a new concept for educators in carrying out the learning
activity. The needs of a new learning pedagogy which can accommodate millennials becomes
one of the challenges that teachers face (Becker, 2017). Due to the fact that younger learners
are very dependent on technology, almost all aspects of their life cannot be separated from
technologies. Young learners can get information easily, share or update their activity through
social media, they also spend a lot of time playing games online. However, this technology
addiction cannot lead the learners to be successful in the classroom and sometimes it creates
challenges in creating a good learning environment.
Most senior high school students who attend an English course are not interested in English
because they might find English classes difficult and boring. Their difficulties in the learning
process might be caused by the lack of vocabularies, low ability in grammar and spelling
(Farooq & Uzair-ul-hassan, 2012), unsupportive classroom environment (Khan & Khan, 2016),
and lack of motivation to study (Lo & Hyland, 2007).
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In line with the above phenomena, teachers find that students are more interested in using their
mobile phones for playing games than they do for studying. Khan and Khan (2016), in their
study, also found that motivation is an obstacle. They say that some students are motivated
while numerous of the respondents are not interested to learn English because of different
factors. It shows the students are motivated, but they do not look motivated due to the absence
of many learning needs. The findings of the study implied that there is a need amongst students
to create motivation. McGonigal (2011, p. 75) argued that games could be the solution for
millennials in the classroom: "Educational games are at best a temporary solution. The
engagement gap is getting too wide for a handful of educational games to make a significant
and lasting difference".
One alternative is online gamification. One of the online gamifications that is suitable and
relevant in enhancing student motivation is Kahoot!. It allows the educator to create surveys
and game-based quizzes that they can join in the game with PIN. While this argument focuses
on the important role that teachers play in successfully integrating technology into classroom
language teaching, an interesting question comes: "What do students’ perception of the latest
gamification tools to promote students' motivation in their language classroom
experiences?"
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Engagement and Motivation
The concepts of academic motivation and engagement might have much in common, leading
to ambiguity. To get in-depth knowledge, in this case, the theory of motivation defines
motivation as an attribute of its source to internal drives to meet the underlying psychological
needs, such as the need for competence, autonomy, and connection (Christenson et al., 2012).
On the other hand, engagement is defined as psychological investment by the student in and
efforts aimed at learning, understanding or mastering the knowledge, skills or crafts designed
to promote academic work. It is important to note that the same problem exists in the field of
achievement motivation. This area of psychology is also pervaded by the tension between
broad, inclusive versus more specific perspectives (Christenson et al., 2012).
Drawing on the theory above regarding academic motivation and a very vague concept of
engagement, it is impossible to address the issue of whether motivation should be regarded as
part of the engagement or vice versa. Christenson et al. (2012, p. 138) illustrated this case like,
"at the most general level, we can say motivation influences behavior which, in turn, influences
subsequent outcomes or A → B→ C, with A = motivation, B = behavior, and C = let us say,
learning. C of course could also be high school graduation, GPA, etc. Such a model seems quite
satisfying because it is general and because it makes clear the mediating role of behavior." Thus,
they concluded the role of motivation and engagement as "in the general case, one could say
that B is engagement. If so, then motivation leads to engagement; motivation is thus a precursor
of engagement rather than a part of engagement, and engagement mediates the relationship
between motivation and school success" (Christenson et al., 2012 p.139).
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and 'relationship' implies becoming connected to others (Ryan & Deci, 2000). They also stated
that students have a different level of motivation. From their theory, the levels of motivation
were investigated under three subsections: lack of motivation, extrinsic motivation, and
intrinsic motivation. Lack of motivation is a state in which behaviour is not given any
significance. Individuals show a specific behaviour of extrinsic motivation owing to outside
control, for meeting desires or fulfilling their ego. In intrinsic motivation, on the other hand,
people show a specific behaviour because of gratification or curiosity in it, or because of their
instinct to succeed (Ryan & Deci, 2000).
Students who have demonstrated behavioural engagement are known to have good attendance
at school, engage in school activities, and respect the rules of the classroom. Students that show
emotional engagement feel they belong to the community, show interest in classes or study, and
also grow whether positive or negative feelings against school and social influences (Nayir,
2017). In other words, students who integrate behavioural engagement will be known by his
environment as the person who can engage in any situation or activity so willingly.
Gamification in Classroom
Gamification is the use of game design features in non-game contexts. Game features such as
point level, display, progress bar, achievement, and scoreboards are used in this study to enable
learners to enjoy gaming experience and, in turn, to motivate them to keep learning after the
game is over. Efficient difficulty levels and game challenge settings are also considered
essential for maximizing the enjoyment of players or learners during the learning process. To
control the difficulty level, the difficulty curve model is used to adjust the experience point
margin to move from one level to another in the system (Boyinbode, 2018).
Becker and Nicholson (2016) proposed the central components of gamification in the
classroom. While no one has not yet completed find the definition of the “game” in classroom
context, they claimed most would agree to refer a game, when it includes at least the following
aspect (Figure 1):
1. Interactivity: if the activity does not involve the student anymore, there is no way to
engage, so the game should end.
2. Rules: A system for pre-specifying player action constraints.
3. Goal(s): One or more objectives that players pursue while interacting with the game
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4. Quantifiable measure of progress (or success): The number of teacher’s assessments
that can be a simple or complicated scoring.
5. Definite ending: Several games do not have clear ending (The Sims, for example), most
games have a clear endpoint for example Kahoot! (Becker and Nicholson, 2016).
On the other side, gamification in the education context is an ongoing process that collects the
most exciting elements of the game and utilizes them to improve learner motivation and
engagement Compared to game-based learning where engagement is short-lived, typically
during the duration of the game, the outcomes are understood on the long term (Alsawaier,
2018). Instead, gamification seems to be the key to productive non-traditional interactions
between classrooms. Nothing can be more pressuring than a lack of motivation or engagement
literally because the classroom does not employ a gamified dynamic with fidelity. Gamification
can help teachers to manage and map the motivation and engagement in the classroom
(Molumby, 2016).
Meaningful Gamification
Meaningful gamification includes the usage of ideas such as player-created storylines, authentic
play-based encounters, and debriefing to help construct meaning for the user. Some of the ideas
listed above, such as empowering players to make a real choice in designing their learning
pathways and building failure-safe spaces, will create incentives for realistic gamification. The
basic principle is that the program has to provide ways for various categories of learners to
make specific links to the basic context (Becker and Nicholson, 2016). They also proposed the
six guides to build meaningful gamification, six ways of creating game-based layers (other than
rewards) that can be applied to motivate students:
1. Reflection: Provide learners with the ability to examine what they have been introduced to
and how they can apply it to their previous experiences.
2. Exposition: Use narratives, either created by the gamification creator or the user, to help
students identify links between the meaning and their lives.
3. Choice: Provide learners with decisions on how to interpret the content.
4. Information: Provide meaning and knowledge to learners about their choices and actions
to help them create a deeper connection to the real world.
5. Play: Build environments where learners can test, fail, and test again as a way to explore.
6. Engagement: Build bridges between users to help them understand why other students
consider the background to participate in and make them interact more likely.
Meaningful gamification is about creating game elements that motivate the user by building his
or her intrinsic motivation. When meaningful gamification is correctly used, students can
connect the lesson materials in ways that are personally relevant and meaningful to them and
they will want to learn rather than be manipulated by rewards.
Self-Determination Theory
The basic of meaningful gamification is the concept of Self-Determination Theory. Deci and
Ryan (2002) stated that this theory a learner to have a positive mental outlook toward engaging
with something, they need to feel like they believe they are able to make choices based upon
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their values and interests, that they are confident and effective in engaging with the world, and
that they feel that they are connected to other people and have a sense of belonging.
Based on Becker and Nicholson (2016, p. 68), “a key aspect of the concept of play is that play
is optional, so for something to truly be play-based, a learner needs to be able to choose not to
play. This concept falls in conflict with many classroom settings. If an instructor chooses to add
a game layer to the classroom, it can be difficult for a student to opt-out of the game layer and
participate in the class more traditionally. Forcing all students to engage with game elements
can run counter to the flexibility the game based-system can provide”. They also argued that
many games are based around the principle of direct competition, and certain gamification
aspects, such as leaderboards, are designed on getting players in competition with each other.
Both game features point to the fact that some students succeed while others fail. The same
ranking that pushes some students to move ahead and excel can also demotivate students who
know they're not doing prog (Becker and Nicholson, 2016).
Kahoot!
Kahoot! is a creative online tool for creating formative language learning assessments, such as
quizzes, discussion, and surveys. The feature on the website allows the quiz creator to choose
different play modes, either classical (individual) or team mode. This tool can be more fun for
game participants and encourages the student to engage in classroom activity actively.
Instead, Kahoot! was identified as an online game that tests student's knowledge of the course
content. The game is free for both teachers and students, and simply a multimedia tool to
participate (Siegle, 2015).
On the top number of answer choices, 'Kahoot!' also provides teachers with the ability to select
the amount of the time that students have to respond to each question (Siegle, 2015) for joining
the game, students need to put the unique code host from the teacher account and sign in with
adding nicknames. While checking the participants to sign in, teachers can also observe for
inappropriate names and delete the nickname by clicking the particular nickname.
Furthermore, Kahoot! is easy to use in formats such as games and it is already popular with
either educators or learners across the country (Singer, 2016). She also reported about 20
million elementary and middle students in the United Kingdom were using Kahoot!. This
educational trend includes gamification and student engagement. Instead, the makers of the
video game rely on student engagement and interest to keep the popularity of the game
spreading (Singer, 2016).
METHOD
We intend to unravel complex perceptions and issues relating to the use of Kahoot! using an
explorative case study under the engagement, motivation, and learning of the students. This
method is used to expand the perspectives obtained from literature analysis and to provide
fundamental forms of understanding for the phenomena under consideration. We provide
details regarding Kahoot!'s design in the following three aspects, our sampling and participants
and data processing and analysis (Licorish et al., 2018).
This research involved 35 students in senior high school, who attended the English class in a
couple of weeks. The research was developed on the subject of English as a foreign language
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(EFL). The participants were 9 males and 26 females (25.7% of the participants were male, and
73.3% were female) The participants are second grade students in senior high school. A
questionnaire was used to collect data for this research where participants were asked to answer
questions. The questionnaire consists of 12 closed-ended and three open-ended questions.
Close-ended questions require respondents to answer by choosing the alternative answer which
is available in the form. Meanwhile, open-ended questions lead the respondent to write a short
answer in the space in the form.
The questions of the questionnaire were adapted and developed from the instrument proposed
by (Khudhair, 2016; Mahmoud & Tanni, 2014). The followings are the details of the
demographic data gathered from the survey:
SDA D N A SA
learning motivation item (p)
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
1. Learning English with kahoot! is fun 2.9 0.0 22.9 25.7 40.0
2. English course is so difficult 8.6 11.4 60.0 20.0 0.0
3. I feel bored to have class almost every day 0.0 11.4 48.6 28.6 11.4
4. I feel more active in the class with Kahoot! 2.9 0.0 22.9 48.6 25.7
5. Kahoot! makes me more excited in learning 5.7 0.0 40.0 42.9 11.4
6. I enjoyed the class with Kahoot! 5.7 11.4 48.6 25.7 8.6
7. Kahoot! helps me to have a better interaction 2.9 2.9 45.7 34.3 14.3
between my classmate and the teacher
8.Kahoot! has positively shaped my perception of 2.9 5.7 34.3 48.6 8.6
online learning
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Table 2. shows the result of questionnaires focus on student engagement and motivation. The table also portrays
the percentage of responses by students according to the 5-point Likert scale (i.e., SA = Strongly Agree, A=
Agree, N = Neutral, D = Disagree, and SDA = Strongly Disagree).
The result in table 2. showed that students' engagement and motivation through classroom
activities which implemented Kahoot! was significant. Table 2 showed that most of the
students used Kahoot easily! in learning English. It was also reported that Kahoot! facilitated
the areas such as:
▪ Students find that learning English with Kahoot! is fun (40%)
▪ Kahoot! leads the student to be more active in the class (48.6%)
▪ Students get more excited when the class uses Kahoot! (42.9%)
▪ Students have better opportunity to communicate in pair or with the teacher (48%)
Based on the data above, 10 students (28.6%) agree and 4 students (11.4%) strongly agree with
the statement (p3) "I feel bored to have class almost every day". It means 40% of respondents'
motivations are in lack of motivation level. When we connect this to the theory, Wigfield and
Wagner (2005) found that students with intrinsic motivation have a high level of academic
performance and a low level of concern and are more active than extrinsic motivation. Lack of
motivation is the bottom one from extrinsic motivation, and the highest is intrinsic motivation.
It showed that student motivation needs to be enhanced to reach their academic achievement.
In implementing Kahoot!, this study found that the level of student motivation significantly
increased, 9 students (25.7%) agree and 14 students (40%) strongly agree with the statement
(p1) " Learning English with Kahoot! is fun". The inherent motivation of students may be
proposed to be related to the significance they relate to learning (Nayir, 2017). In other words,
the findings of this study revealed that the students were only interested and active in the
subjects that were interesting to them. This means Kahoot! enacts as learning media to relate
the material, teacher, classroom environment, and the students themselves.
SDA D N A SA
Learning outcomes item (p)
(%) (%) (%) (%) (%)
1. Interesting learning media helps me in 2.9 0.0 22.9 48.6 25.7
understanding material
2. Kahoot! helps me more understand the 5.7 5.7 42.9 40.0 5.7
materials
3. Kahoot! helps me in mastering the course, 2.9 8.6 48.6 34.3 5.7
such as vocabularies, the meaning, or grammar
4. Kahoot! has allowed me to stay focused in 2.9 8.6 37.1 42.9 8.6
class
Meanwhile, shedding more light on their capability in mastering the English course, results
confirm that; 48.6% of students reported their support for any new learning media, most of the
students also agreed that they could enhance their language on grammar, vocabularies, and
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translation. In comparison, they do a fun activity in the class (34.3%). The result also showed
Kahoot! allowed the students to stay focused in class (42.9%).
Furthermore, the findings of open-ended questions showed 11 students felt learning in class
became more challenging for increasing students' enthusiasm, intensive interaction during the
learning process, and the feeling for competition. 11 students also reported the classroom
environment became more enjoyable. This game was able to support the learning process by
elevating stress providing ease in comprehending the lesson.
In line with the students' statements, other researchers claimed that the strategy using online
application media based on Kahoot! can increase students ' learning motivation which has been
an evidence that English learning outcomes can increase significantly. With the Kahoot!
network, student learning performance can be enhanced as proof that English learning results
undergo a significant value increase (Susilo, 2019). The present study reveals that gamification
can be used for various educational reasons and in all lessons. Students learn topics more easily,
and tackle difficult material in a fun way; therefore, it can be concluded that gamification would
be an appropriate learning method for English classes. Similar results were also found in a
different study. Although numerical games were primarily used, gamification can be applied to
many cases in daily life (Becker, 2017). Motivation, one of the most important factors in foreign
language learning, is defined as a power that initiates and facilitates the language-learning
process. Consistent with Lincorish (2018), in order to discover the responses to the questions
and to consider whether they were right or wrong, students developed a deeper comprehension
that significantly led to their attention and ability to recall.
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material but to understand new perspectives and increase their knowledge. In particular,
students enjoyed Kahoot! that were relevant to the course, explored complex concepts and
offered insight into applications of theory as depicted in the following excerpts:
The questionnaire also showed that 48.6% agree for "Interesting learning media helps me in
understanding material" also 34.3% of students agree in "Kahoot! helps me in mastering the
course, such as vocabularies, the meaning, or grammar". Based on Susilo (2019) institutions of
higher education need to start using learning technologies, to deliver material for lectures in
new ways, to allow students to participate in classes freely and to provide them more concrete
forms of study. The present study also provides additional support for a study by Ryan and Deci
(2000) which stated that classroom environments need to provide facilities for students to fulfill
an intrinsic desire to feel connected, effective and involved as one is introduced to new ideas
and new skills. Gaming is a realistic way for educators to provide unique learning opportunities
that help students achieve their potential (Siegle, 2015). That means when the three basics of
student need has been completed, they can easily get the material or courses that they study.
The student has a freedom to express their idea because they can be involved in Kahoot!
Anonymously, they can understand whether they answer right or wrong based on the
explanation and experience in the game.
CONCLUSION
This study has revealed the result of students' perception toward the implementation of Kahoot!
as online meaningful gamification in the classroom. The gamification-based learning was
implemented for two months. From the result of the data analysis, the researcher found out that
there has been an interest in understanding how students’ motivation and engagement influence
their learning. Educational games and gamification in particular contexts are applied to support
the development of students’ motivational, emotional and social outlook. Students' anonymity
were protected when playing Kahoot!, which reduces the risk of their privacy being
compromised. To this end, there is a need for deeper insights around the effectiveness of this
tool, and particularly for older students. We addressed this gap and conducted interviews with
students to understand Kahoot! further, including how this technology informs learning, and
the conditions under which it provides the most value to teachers and students. We observed
that Kahoot! gave students more opportunities to engage with the teacher, peers and learning
content. It also helped in creating a learning experience that was described as “fun”, which
contributed to useful classroom engagement. Students felt that Kahoot! captured their focus and
interest during the course but was also timely for allowing breaks. Our outcomes showed that
Kahoot! has been able to motivate students to be engaged in class activities and encourage
interaction in the classroom. Students conceded that Kahoot!s use in class had a positive impact
on the knowledge and skills they attained. Students noted that the drive to increase their
attention and focus and interaction and engagement strongly supported their learning in the
course.
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